Horowitz and Intellectual Terrorism at UCLA

Last Wednesday, evening the Freedom Center’s David Horowitz gave a much anticipated and ferociously opposed presentation before a crowd of more than 300 people at Moore Hall at the University of California at Los Angeles. The event was hosted by the Bruin Republicans, self-described as “the only officially right-of-center organization on the UCLA campus” – which is a good, albeit disheartening, indicator of the very issue Horowitz has been addressing on hundreds of campuses across this country, and which was the evening’s topic: the fact that our institutions of supposedly higher learning are utterly dominated by intolerant progressive academics who are ill-serving and mentally straight-jacketing their students.

Horowitz’s speech was as blunt as the title of his presentation – “Intellectual Terrorism: The Left’s War on Free Speech.” Pacing back and forth at the front of the hall, he was revved up right out of the gate and became even more impassioned as he went on. He began the wide-ranging, forty-minute speech with a condemnation of academics who indoctrinate rather than teach (“The students who suffer most are those of you who are on the left, because your assumptions are never challenged.”) Among other topics, he went on to decry campus anti-Semitism and to identify Islam as the greatest oppressor of women and gays in the world today. He delivered a myth-busting history of “Palestine” and a concise explanation of his opposition to slavery reparations a hundred years after the fact. And he attacked the Muslim Student Association, ubiquitous on major college campuses, as a creation of the Muslim Brotherhood, a supporter of the terrorist organization Hamas and the sponsor of Israel Apartheid weeks across the country.

He was flanked throughout the speech by very visible security – a tragic necessity for Horowitz, who is a lightning rod for some of the most bilious hatred that has ever been directed at a conservative public figure. He regularly receives threats prior to speaking engagements and has in fact been physically attacked. This is the inevitable result of his having once been a radical leftist himself, for the Left is only marginally more forgiving of its apostates than fundamentalist Muslims are of theirs.

But considering that Horowitz is frequently the target of organized disruption on the part of certain antagonistic student groups, this UCLA crowd was notably and unexpectedly quiet and respectful. There were literally no interruptions, heckling or outbursts, apart from frequent applause from a largely supportive crowd (and one other I’ll describe in a moment). Horowitz seemed so disarmed by this that he commented on it and commended the crowd for it more than once, eventually confessing that his many previous difficult campus experiences may have inclined him to a bit of paranoia.

However, the audience’s civility belied the atmosphere of intimidation under which the event was organized in the first place. In addition to the usual concerns which prompted the hiring of private security, there was more subtle coercion at work. The Bruin Republicans were the only student group that dared host Horowitz; no Jewish group at UCLA would sponsor him or participate in erecting the Freedom Center’s “Palestinian Wall of Lies,” designed to counteract campus campaigns against Israel’s so-called “apartheid state;” indeed, one of those Jewish groups told a Bruin Republican organizer that she would be ostracized by the Jewish community on campus if she participated in arranging Horowitz’s presentation – a threat that was probably unfounded and that she ignored, to her credit.

Evidently, however, the Muslim Students Association and Students for Justice in Palestine – both singled out by Horowitz as groups conducting a hate campaign against Jews on college campuses – decided to sit the speech out. The only questions about Islam after the speech were raised by a couple of members of conservative organizations who asked Horowitz to comment on the threat of Sharia and the existence of moderate Muslims. Regarding the former, he pointed out that people are so focused on violent terrorism that they fail to recognize the more subtle threat on the cultural front. As to moderate Muslims, he noted that there are good and bad people in all religions; there were probably many Germans who did not support Nazism either, he said, but their existence didn’t make a damn bit of difference in terms of halting the Final Solution.

Mark Tapson, a Hollywood-based writer and screenwriter, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He focuses on the politics of popular culture.

hal

horowitz is the guru on the leftist and racist assault on the immature, inexperienced minds existing so commonly in American institution– empty minds with oversized vocal cords. He has been there and and speaks with the authority born of that destructive experience.Those listening closely to him will be will be far better off understanding the crap and lies shovelled at them.

vladdy

You might want to pick up one of David's numerous books about U.S. universities, specific professors, and the leftist ideology that serves as education. He's one of the top people in the field.

Supreme_Galooty

Rare in America is a college or university that focuses on EDUCATION, their preferred activity being TRAINING. This is a condition shared by most on the left and many on the right. Training is the sort of thing that requires performance by rote, while education requires thoughtful examination – performance being a tertiary consideration.

Mr. Horowitz is completely accurate when he points out that a person whose beliefs are never challenged is in significant danger of becoming a very shallow person indeed. By appearing in Academe, whether civilly received or not, Mr. Horowitz and others like him, are bringing actual education to the campus in spite of the kicking, screaming, and caterwauling of the liberal fascists in charge.

Savage is right that liberalism is a mental disorder, and a significant element of that disorder is reflected in their thoughtless training (read, indoctrination,) their closed mindedness, and the paucity of logical thought amongst their elites.

Fred Dawes

Love savage and horowits both are fighting for human and civil right and the lefists are like the Nazi government fighting for the right to do a holocaust on the new jews, and we are the new jews.

John P. Jones

Nothing could be more obvious than the fact that this post was written by David Horowitz.

Or revealing how little he's read of your writing and David's. Your writing's fantastic Mark but the two of you certainly have different prose styles.

http://marktapson.blogspot.com MarkTapson

Thanks, David! I did kind of tone down my usual style for this one. It's a bit more straightforwardly journalistic this time.

trickyblain

Journalistic? Really?

It's a fawning tribute to one of your heroes. If it was journalistic you would have clarified that Howowitz being "physically attacked" was getting a pie thrown at him.

http://marktapson.blogspot.com MarkTapson

Maximus from the movie GLADIATOR is my hero, although I do have tremendous respect for Horowitz's work. But I think you need to look up the words "fawning" and "tribute."

trickyblain

Nice. Mine is Han Solo. Maybe Ronnie Lott, too.

No need to look up the words — don't use 'em if I don't know. Are you claiming that your article doesn't paint Horowitz in a heroic light (the "good" guy confronting "bad")? Are you saying that you are objective, in a "journalistic" sense?

Yes, Mark, fawning tribute. Pathetically fawning, honestly. Look up the words. Re-read your work as a point of reference. Then look up the words– again if you're still confused– and get back to us.

trickyblain

True. There are no flecks of spittle flying from this page.

jacob

And asides from that, what can YOU criticize on the truths HOROWITZ exposes
about the way matters are handled in out colleges and universities by the leftist
scum WE allowed to get entrenched in "academic" matters ???

I recognize them by the odor, their dressing and certaily don't waste my time
listening to them, knowing since high school the garbage they want young
and idealistic people to swallow…

But let me ask YOU one question :

Do you believe if the shoe ever falls on the other foot, you will be able to open
your mouth ???

THINK ABOUT IT

Sashland

I LOVE obvious facts.

Obviously, that's a fact.

Obviously, when someone is so sure of the facts they have no need for evidence.
Its a common self-delusion. Usually its the obvious fact that Sadamn had no WMD and was no threat to the US – except NOT ONE of the people I have heard express this obvious fact have ever read the actual evidence called the Duelfer Report http://www.gpoaccess.gov/duelfer/index.html

I LOVE obvious facts, especially when they AIN'T.

Leon

'Usually its the obvious fact that Sadamn had no WMD … '

Stick 'WMDs Wikileaks' into google … then stick your head into a microwave.

Sashland

obviously, you have NOT read the report…
like the part about active bio-weapons labs that experimented on human subjects, nor the part about building a specialized short-run chemical factory designed to produce banned precursors.
You must not have ever seen the National Geographic report during the invasion that inspected a lab for concealing bombs, including a bomb-detection device used by airline security – concealing bombs in books and umbrellas for the purpose of a mass-casualty attack. And, then those other pesky little items of banned missile engines and that corrupted 'oil-for-banned items' UN program.

Don't let those actual FACTS constrain you though…obviously.

Fred Dawes

why do you hate so much? why do you hate jews? why do you hate God if you are a muslim become a jew at once that way God may let you in the door.

hal

in any environment one can separate the micrcephalic dolts simply by the decibels of their shoutings.-echoes reverberating in hollowness.

080

Any ideology (which is the flag symbolizing a political position) is a waste of time when transmitted by a university. All you have to do is listen to the radio or pick up some kind of journalistic scribbling to get the proper talking points so that you can raise the flag symbolizing your political position. Truth and objectivity are quite different and difficult to achieve. They are what a university is supposed to be about. If not, it is a waste of the student's time and money. Young people do not have the mental equipment for the most part to defend themselves. So David Horowitz is doing a good job to bring some light. The parents should get involved. I would say that the "social sciences" and humanities as presented in contemporary American Universities will leave those who immerse themselves as unemployable discontents. My advice. Get into a field that someone is willing to pay for like accounting, or law, orl perhaps economics and engineering.

guest

What started out as "social sciences" has become , over the years, bull**** sciences. As for the parents getting involved, many are too busy watching American Idol, the Shopping Channel, and "trading up" in their marriages or personal relationships. Others are too busy figuring out what their new career will be, given the economy.

galileo

UCLA is split???
Try to invite a speaker who criticizes Hamas and see
if any center or academic unit would be willing to co-sposor the talk.
I have tried — impossible.
The Center for Middle East Studies has become a Hamas recruiting center,
The History department idea of history comes from Gelvin's books
The Center for Jewish Studies is controlled by J Street.
The Daily Bruin did not cover Horowitz lecture, they covered Chomsky.
So, how is it "split"???

hippiepooter

Vladdy is just another lefty liar trying to sow confusion.

shakazulu

Just like homosexuals are free to legally marry any person of the opposite sex that they choose, conservatives are free to home-school themselves and watch Fox News if they choose.

hal

only one big problem.they are not 'free' to home school.they first get taxed heavily for supporting the educational destruction of their own children if they attend school.If they elect to home school,they still have to pay the blooming taxes and cover entirely the cost of home schooling too.

Yawn

I read this twice to try to find a shred of journalism backing the lede's assertion that David Horowitz' talk was "ferociously opposed." Evidently he received a polite hearing, and the "tragic necessity" of his personal security team remains unclear.

You claim that other groups on campus "didn't dare" host this speech. Another possibility worth considering is that they weren't interested. Evidently, there are people who disagree with him, who must be pitifully indoctrinated. What a heroic public figure! And how about those courageous campus Republicans!

What idle puffery.

It's clear enough, Mark, that your readership has very strong feelings about David Horowitz and his talking points. Now, how about something substantive?

aspacia

Yes, Yawn, you are still asleep. If you do not know the history of the fatwas and threats Horowitz frequently receives, and the often violent protests surrounding his speaking events, you are clueless.

Fred Dawes

you must be a dvotee to the left and must hate the ideals of real people like Horowitz. and your hero must be Hitler and the big Muslim on campus.

OLJingoist

You read it twice and still didn't understand it?
You are the poster boy/girl for exactly what the problem is.
A liberal education.
This will fall on deaf ears so I kept it short. Their is just so much hate in you that the left has cultivated, that when the truth is revealed to you, you reject it out of hand.

Aside from classes like political science,political talk in any non political instructional class should be grounds for censure and demerit to the lecturer.Stick to properly educating the kids!!!!enough with the freekin propaganda!!When most :"graduate" they are still terribly short changed and unable to function.All set for a life of frustration and anger.

aspacia

LOL, and in the 9-12 system, if instructors teach the basics, they are penalized by their Bill Ayes administrative apostles

Elmer Membreno

lol im graduating from UCLA this year and I am a moderate/centrist and I'll be the first to tell you that it is NOT evenly split. UCLA is dominated by left-wing radicals and progressive activists. Sure you'll see one or two hardcore right-wingers but for every right-winger you see on campus, you'll see about 20,000 left-wingers lol

Chezwick_mac

K26dr is probably sufficiently left that his perception of the left-right divide is hopelessly skewed…a bit like Dan Rather calling the 'New York Times' "middle of the road".

kblink45

American universities, high and low, manufacture self-importance, which is why conservatism, the central premise of which is humility, can't survive professional academe.

Jim_C

One might say the same about Christianity. Or a culinary degree. Or officer training. Or middle management. Or law school. Or athletic programs. Or….

Emilya

As an attendant of UCLA< who was also at the lecture, I can assure you guys that UCLA is definetly evenly split.

Fred Dawes

UCLA Means to remove all ideals but one that idea is to murder all people who would stand up and say no to the new hitler of our times and the new leaders of evil have made it known the rape of the USA Must be done in the name of multiculturalism, the so called education system is a lefists racists mind set of evil and the new nazi is not some stupid white person but a really stupid brown/black person who wants mass murder inside this nation. listen to savage nation read La Raza and watch your own government and listen to what the really evil pigs want to do.

infidelrising

Is that even split among the faculty as well?

Jim

Let's see the data that verifies that "even split." If you don't have it, you can't assure anyone of anything.

Leon

You can't even spell the word 'definitely' correctly with a built-in spell-checker.

Fred Dawes

the system of education of the lefists is the same mind set as the Nazi of 1933, Horowitz and savage are the ones fighting the Nazi and if we don't fight back we will become the New Jew in the oven.

http://www.okcteaparty.org Dan

The only problem I have is figuring out if they are National SOCIALISTS (Nazis) or International SOCIALISTS (Big 'C' Communists) using (now and for several decades) a seeming never ending stream of what I call 'Professional Minorities' as some of their foot soldiers. Following David Horowitz I am increasing convinced there are ultimately Big C-ers who would entirely be satisfied with the same atrocious result (i.e atrocities as — as David has stated previously — the unapologized for Cambodia genre).

Underzog

These terms "moderate" and "extremist" were correctly blasted by the late Ayn Rand and her "Objectivist" followers. There is nothing so great about being a moderate. Moderate what? Moderate intelligence? Morality? Moderate sickness?

The term "extremist" may be even worse. The Objectivist correctly denigrate the term "extremist as an anti concept: the joining together of disimilar things into a mish mash used in today's context as a smear tag.

The founding fathers were extremists. When deprived of their rights, they did not go to the english parliment, but, instead, declared the rights of man and pushed for independence.

What is a moderate Muslim/Arab anyway? Is that a Muslim that wants to drink the blood of the Jews and conquer the West (dar al harb) to envelope it in their ghastly vision of a world wide caliphate?

Even that so-called moderate Muslim blogger, the egyptian "Sand Monkey," hates Israel. Enough well placed bombs will quiet the so-called moderates and the so-called extremists down in their foam-at-the-mouth hatred for Jews and the West.

Fred Dawes

you can really see! ask a muslim why he or she hates jews, all i get from muslims is just a list of BS. Muslims are fools.

tim heekin

I'm all in favor of reparations. Since I'm not a Democrat I won't have to pay

Foolster41

I really hope this is a joke.
(Democrats were the ones who were for slavery. It was a republican president who made the final push for the end of slavery)

jbtrevor

Wow, perhaps the 'message' is getting through. Maybe now that the current university age person can see for themselves how feckless & oppressive their Democrat gurus policies are, and are willing to listen and/or are yearning for some one who can clearly tell them how it really is. Bravo David Horowitz

jacob

The Jewish student organizations follow the same road Pastor NIEMOELLER
pointed out happened in Nazi Germany…

German Jews were also first Germans and then perhaps Jews but a Hitler came
who reminded even those who had a great-great-great grandmother they were
still Jews and marched them to the crematoriums…

Just give OBOZO another term the way most of you did this time, not willing to know
a damned thing about who he actually was, just because he was your DEMOCRAP party's choice and I can assure you, you will be in for one hell of a big awakening

jacob

As to brainwashing at higher education places, I have a grandson who after only 6 months at Bar Illan university in Tel Aviv, Israel, came out a "nail in tail" ultra liberal…

His father is very religious and so is his household but….

I would love to watch all those ultra liberals and lefties if Hizbullah lets out full
rockets bombardment on Tel Aviv…

Fred Dawes

That is sad, the mad thing is no Jews should be a lefist the muslim use the Jews.
I AM NO JEW OR muslim OR Do i love the gods of the east or a follower of Christ but i can see evil when it comes at me, your grandson needs 5 years in the Army that may open his eyes?

RiverFred

I just want to thank David for educating those who have been indoctrinated with anti-Israel lies. Someone needs to stand up to the 'wall of lies.'

Off the subject, I heard bin laden had quite a porn library, what a hyprocrite.

kafirman

Being an Engineering graduate of UCLA (1986), I can say that even then the most valuable part of my education was my extra curricular participation in one of the campus Christian groups. I learned how to study the Bible, actualize my faith and being to take UCLA's culture to task. While Engineering teaches objective truth and is a worthwhile discipline, UCLA contextualizes Engineering dissonantly. In contradiction to The Declaration, UCLA does not uphold that natural law is "self-evident."

To mama was right

Where are the days you only joined those wacky hard Left groups for the chicks – you know, those rebellious, committed-to-saving-the-world, tight-shirted, big boobed broads. And the hope was that if you play the part well, she'd put out.
( and most of the gals joined only to piss off their bourgeois parents)
Where are those days of yore?

Now, those numb-skulls really believe this sh!t.

Your mama was right when she said "keep off bad company, becuase their badness will rub off on you".

http://vnnforum.com DeShawn

You satanic spawn already control the media, the government and the economy, and now you want academia too? Wow, the arrogance of you yids is amazing.

Sashland

Be compliant or I will activate the implant in your brain…

marat 1

Oh dear, those Satanic Jews! Here is how Satanic: they comprise about 0.02% of the world population, while having won about 27% of all Nobel Prizes, with higher percentages in particular sub-categories. At least 173 prizes. And you, sweetie, are probably alive right now due to some of their contributions to humanity. YOUR arrogance is far, far above theirs…..have a nice day!

Eddie

DeSHlTler,

Sadly for nazi filth like yourself, your side SURRENEDER UNCONDITIONALLY to the US, UK and SU on May 7, 1945.

Barry

I'm not sure how much time you spent proofing your comment. Apparently less than you spent considering the logic of the content (or lack thereof).

http://www.hot-show.eu Petra

Since I'm not a Democrat I won't have to pay

dawning

I was in and around Bezerkly for many years…Glad I'm not there now. I am really glad Mr. Horowitz got a hearing for his impassioned and needed message.

Steve

David, keep up the good work…thanks.

ebonystone

"Do we allow you to marry someone who is 13 yo? Do we allow you to marry your dog? Do we allow you to marry more than one person even if all parties are of legal age, and agree to it?"

Maybe not at present. But stick around for a few years. A few million more Moslem immigrants will take care of the age limitations, and the prohibition of polygamy. After all, Big Mo hisself "married" Aisha when she was only 6. And Islam authorizes polygamy. On the other hand, homosexual "marriage" won't remain legal for long under the Moslems. Nor will homosexuality itself. Also, Moslems don't think much of dogs, but affairs with donkeys, sheep, and goats remain very popular in the Moslem world.